


Gladiolus

by GuyOfShy



Series: Scatterings of White Roses and Sightings of Bumblebees [34]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Bumblebee/by - Freeform, Comfort, F/F, Inspired by Fanart, Light Angst, Sparring, The Bumbleby training montage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuyOfShy/pseuds/GuyOfShy
Summary: After rest, recuperation, and a great deal of time spent alone without each other, the Bees finally reunite on Patch and get back to training - and loving.





	Gladiolus

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LillyLux](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=LillyLux).



> Inspired by [this awesome fanart by the awesome LillyLux!](http://lillylux.tumblr.com/post/163293387187/lost-your-edge-yang)

“Lost your edge, Yang?”

Blake tucked her wooden practice swords under her arm and offered her hand to the bested blonde on her back.

“Either that, or you’ve gotten a lot sharper yourself. One more round.”

Yang accepted her hand and bounded back up into another fighting stance. Blake took hers, readying her weapons.

Yang expected Blake to be complacent, coolly brimming with quiet confidence, or at least grinning as she prepared to take yet another victory. But she stared pensively at her as usual, assessing her performance, producing a new strategy to better fight back with.

Yang tightened her fists. Breathed. She could do this. She was ready.

That’s what she thought earlier, at least. Yang had started today’s sparring session off happy as usual, eager to get back into the practice ring with her partner after they hadn’t seen each other for so long. But Blake had won almost every round so far when they usually went just about even. Worse still, with every round Yang lost, her doubtful feelings grew more compelling. Maybe she really had lost her edge. Maybe she wasn’t exercising enough or had lost focus on the basics, something physically or fundamentally limiting her.

Blake must have seen how Yang doubted her ability to win this next round, because she lunged for her before she could decide. Yang leapt to the right just in time, lifting her left arm to block the second strike Blake followed her with. Yang used the momentum of the blow to tilt onto her free hand and sweep Blake’s leg. She fell, but hopped upwards from the clone with her Semblance. Yang only caught a glimpse of her leaving as she finished her rotation; she didn’t know what angle she was coming from. Blind spot. No time. Blocking unlikely.

She quickly rolled forward and away from Blake’s makeshift sword, standing and spinning around with her arms drawn to her chest again. Even when they made even trades, Yang still felt pressured just trying to keep up.

“That was a good roll,” Blake said.

“That was a good move with the clone.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“It gets me somewhere in the bedro- Woah!”

Yang stumbled away from Blake’s sword that had been slung toward her. It spun right past her, and as her eyes locked onto it flying by Blake’s figure rushed into view, sliding and catching it, crossing her arms and swinging at Yang’s abdomen.

She felt them graze her stomach but moved fast enough not to get hurt.

“Jeez Blake! I was only joking!”

“Jokes won’t get you anywhere either. Especially not in the bedroom.”

“Yeah, well, I won’t either if I can’t even win a single round against you. We’ll be out here all day before that happens.”

“Not with an attitude like that, you won’t. Do you want to take a break? We’ve been at this for a while.”

“Not really. But I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

Yang exhaled, rolled her shoulders, and followed Blake back to the cabin. The Faunus bent down to lean her swords against the wall next to the porch and ascended the stairs, grabbing her water bottle and leaning back on the railing in one fluid motion. Only now, after being subject to her raw agility in combat, did Yang notice how smoothly she accomplished the simplest of movements. Like she had practiced stepping up stairs and pivoting a perfect one-eighty at the top while twisting open a bottle cap before and could do it perfectly.

Yang dropped into the rocking chair and turned her eyes to the floor while she drank from her own water bottle.

“Alright Blake. Hit me.”

“You’re more apprehensive. You seem to be hesitating a lot before making any moves. You shouldn’t let that show, especially not before a fight starts.” Blake paused to hear Yang’s thoughts, but she said nothing. “With a fighting style as close ranged as yours, you need to be able to get in the moment you see an opening before it’s gone, but whenever you have one you keep waiting. Almost every time I’ve caught myself open you’ve hesitated.”

“Even in that last round?” Yang looked up at Blake’s ever-serious stare.

“No. That round we were both pretty safe.”

Yang glanced out to the sunny field where they had been practicing. From here she could still make out the small patches of grass that had been kicked up by their boots.

Her eyes dropped down again. Apprehensive, huh? Hesitating? Yang opened and closed the her mechanical hand, listening to the tiny creaks of the joints in the knuckles bending and straightening. Yeah. She was still apprehensive; she knew that.

“Can you blame me?” She asked aloud. “It’s still… hard. The last time I fought this happened because I was reckless.” Her mind wandered back to the burning building. The burning flames heating her skin, the burning blood when she heard Blake scream, and the burning in her eyes when she saw the guy who had hurt her. Yang’s mind wandered back to Blake. In the warm, sunny field where they had kicked up the grass. She unclenched her fist.

“I’m not blaming you,” Blake finally said, having watched her sulk for long enough with her sad, half-lidded stare. She hated seeing Yang down like this, hiding her beautiful lavender eyes and sunny smile. Yang didn’t deserve to be sad. Not after all the happiness she had given to Blake, who stepped over and held both of her hands. “I know it must be hard. I know my injury totally pales in comparison, but it was hard for me too,” Blake said while lifting the left side of her shirt, revealing the pink scar on her abdomen. She lifted Yang’s new hand to it, making absolutely sure to resist flinching from the metallic chill. “But I thought of you. I thanked you, every single day, because I would have died had you not shown up and saved me.”

“Blake… we’ve been over this already,” she said, staring wistfully at the disfigured flesh and then up into Blake’s bright amber eyes. “We’re supposed to be sparring, not getting each other all emotional,” she whimpered, her quivering lips blooming into a smile.

That was the smile Blake had missed seeing. Yang started to look away again but Blake lifted her chin with one hand and leaned on the arm of the chair with the other while swooping in to kiss her, holding it for an extra beat while her hair fell over her shoulders.

“It’s okay to be emotional. And that’s coming from me, Brooding Blake,” she added sarcastically. “But we’re together again, so we’re going to work together. Right?

“Yeah… Right. Okay Blake. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. And get up,” Blake said while stepping off the porch and retrieving her swords. “We’ve got work to do if we want to get you back into shape after all.”

Watching Blake standing in the sun and smiling at her was one of the most surreal images Yang had ever seen. The kind that was impossibly beautiful, impossible to describe, so much so that it hurt.

Yang looked back at her arm again as she stood up. She was happy she had painted it black and yellow. She wiped the teardrop that had fallen on it with her shirt and stepped out into the sun with Blake.

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is the first real fighting I’ve ever written. I mean, it wasn’t much, but it was new territory, and it was fun! And I think I did okay on it. And I think I did pretty good on this fic, or at least, I had a ton of fun writing it. Let me know how I did (on that and everything else), any thoughts and criticisms are super appreciated.
> 
> Nothing else to say really… thank you for reading everyone. I hope you all have had a wonderful, happy day and will have another tomorrow :)


End file.
